ATHENS, Ga. — The LSU soccer team, which saw its six-game unbeaten streak snapped with a 2-1 loss at the hands of 14th-ranked Tennessee on Friday, looks to get back on the winning track when it battles Georgia on Sunday at 1 p.m. CDT at the Turner Soccer Complex.
LSU is just 2-5 all-time against the Bulldogs in a series that dates back to the 1996 season but earned a hard fought 1-0 shutout at home last season with Georgia providing the Tigers an own goal with less than five minutes to go for the winning tally. LSU’s first win over the Bulldogs came in 2003 by the lopsided score of 4-1.
“We’ve seen enough film to know that Georgia is a very good team,” said LSU head coach Brian Lee. “They’re 1-4 in the league right now, but that could easily be flipped and they’d be 4-1 if the goals would have gone their way. There are a bunch of quality programs in the SEC this year and Georgia is certainly one of the best.”
The Bulldogs (6-6-0, 1-4-0 SEC) have struggled in the first three weeks of the SEC season as they have dropped four SEC matches in a row after being ranked as high as No. 18 in the preseason polls. They are coming off of a difficult 2-1 loss of their own to Arkansas on Friday and have dropped three matches in a row by that result.
Georgia is similar to LSU in that they start six freshmen who were part of the nation’s No. 8 recruiting class according to Soccer Buzz Magazine and play as many as nine over the course of a single match. Freshman forward Carrie Patterson leads the Bulldog attack as she has scored a team-high five goals and 13 points on the season.
“Patrick (Baker) is certainly attracting some quality talent to Athens with the kind of recruiting class he signed this past year,” Lee said. “This is probably one of the most talented Georgia teams we’ve ever faced to be honest. They play a lot of freshmen like we do and will provide a great challenge for our young team playing on the road.”
The Tigers (7-5-2, 2-1-2 SEC) are now in sole possession of second place in the SEC Western Division with eight points after the Ole Miss Rebels earned their ninth point in conference play with a 0-0 draw against Auburn on Friday. LSU will surpass its point total of 10 from all of last season with a win against Georgia on Sunday.
“The race for the conference championship is certainly up for grabs at this point with seven or eight teams having a legitimate shot to win it in the end,” Lee said. “We’re in that mix if we can take care of our business on the field, and it all starts with us coming out and competing for 90 minutes against a good Georgia team on Sunday.”
The Tigers are scheduled to play four of their last five conference matches in Baton Rouge as they return to action Friday by welcoming SEC Western Division rival Auburn to the LSU Soccer Complex in a match scheduled for 7 p.m. They follow with a match against the Alabama Crimson Tide on Oct. 15 at 1 p.m.